Ethical Consumption, Plastic Free July, and Following Jesus

This coming July in 2020 will continue the global effort and movement of Plastic Free July (plasticfreejuly.org). Many of us are aware about the devastating effects of plastic to developing countries, waterways, oceans, landfills, and climate change, yet it can be hard to know what to do about it. Andrew sat down with Bridget Barnard from Urban Vision and Carey Baptist College to chat. 

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So Bridget, I understand that you and your whãnau had quite the revelation and experience coming to terms with the concept of living plastic free. Can you tell me a little bit about that? 

Sheesh—that makes it sound very radical!

As a family we are keen to live simply and the ‘plastic issue’ was a problem we decided to tackle one Lent, as it's useful to have a specific purpose and time period to challenge habitual behaviour! It was also part of a wider conversation we were having within our Urban Vision team about reducing our ecological footprint. 

However I think the phrase ‘ethical consumer’ is a bit more useful rather than ‘plastic free’ as one, we’re nowhere near completely free of plastic! And two, the issue is much bigger and broader than just plastic, so there’s a whole grid of decision making. For example, I don’t want to give money to unethical businesses, so which brands are best—or even just better—and give people a fair wage? What industries are harmful to the environment or which ones are actively trying to reduce their impact? What ingredients are in my food (palm oil was out)? Can the containers actually be recycled or just sent overseas? Can we actually afford the whole eco-friendly, organic, sustainable packaging options? What do we actually need to buy anyway—the list goes on (and on and on). 

And it seems you understand this distinctly as a faith issue. What does living plastic free have to do with following Jesus?

For sure—I think our faith is the lens we consider all our ideas, decisions, and actions through. Faith needs to be intentional. I’m always wondering: “Does this glorify God? How does this give an insight into the kingdom of God? Am I being a faithful disciple?” I want my faith to be as robust and holistic as possible, and the way I see it is that care and concern for issues of justice, the environment, discipleship, worship, and transformation are all connected. Besides, I love this creation; it’s a constant source of delight and fascination. Our mindless production, consumption, and throw away culture shows a blatant disregard for the proper use of resources and is deeply disrespectful to the Creator. It’s also unhealthy for us to be so unreflective about our purchasing decisions—what we spend our money on really does reveal our true values. 

How do you find Christians often respond to issues of ecology and plastic usage? Is the response generally positive or enthusiastic?

It depends which group you’re talking to. There’s a growing movement of more eco-aware Christians—they’re positive and motivated, especially in the climate change arena. Others don't perceive it as a ‘faith’ issue at all, or if it is, its way down the list. 

I strongly believe it is an area of spiritual discipline and repentance for Christians, we’ve somehow made creation-care an optional personal preference, when it is a collective stewardship responsibility. I have had conversations where people have dismissed my efforts because sometimes the initial solution isn’t ideal—but that’s a convenient op-out. We’re not great at most spiritual disciplines to start with either (like prayer or evangelism), but we still think it’s necessary to embed them in our lives. We keep learning, practicing, failing, repenting, trying again, all by God’s grace. It’s the same with living simply; imagine what a witness the Church could be, modelling a counter lifestyle of simplicity! 

So what does this type of plastic free lifestyle actually look like day-to-day for yourself and the people you live with? 

Well we started with the easy stuff; we already had reusable grocery bags and added in the fruit and veg bags too. I looked for substitutes, things in glass jars and tins rather than plastic bottles. This often meant changing brands and then I ran into the dilemma of “I can buy jam in a glass jar but it’s from Poland! And my fave jam is made in New Zealand, but its in a plastic pot … Sigh, time to write to the company and ask for change.”

We gave up some things that were heavily packaged and I couldn’t find alternatives for—like muesli bars (although they have snuck back into the shopping now). Next was going to Bin Inn and using refillable containers for lots of things like pasta, rice, cornflakes, dates, honey, dishwashing liquid.

The next step was considering what to do about dairy and meat. We reduced our meat intake significantly, started making our own spreadable butter (but yes, we still use butter) and figured out how to get milk from a market in reusable glass bottles by teaming up with some other people - because all these extra trips to different shops was time consuming. 

You start thinking creatively and ask what is actually necessary—we don’t really use proper rubbish bags anymore. We compost so there’s nothing wet/foody/smelly in the bin, we rinse any packaging that is gross first, and with diligent recycling we find we don’t throw out much anyway. But you can also re-use/re-purpose things too, I’m still buying loo paper in a plastic wrap (although there’s other options—I just haven’t got there yet) and if you open it carefully it's a liner for the loo rubbish bin.

In general we try and buy things second hand or quality. We’ve wrestled with how to reduce our carbon footprint, are using more public transport and eventually bought an electric vehicle, which is not without its ethical issues either!

There’s always more you could do and you start to realise how broken our production systems are. I find it helpful to frame it up as an ongoing journey and a ‘way of doing life’ rather than adding it as yet another thing to sort out over plastic free july. You have to be kind and realistic—sometimes you will buy bad stuff on purpose—we still eat ice cream and chippies for a treat!

How do you get things that are generally hard to find plastic free?

It’s hard, which is super frustrating as it puts all the effort and responsibility onto the individual, whereas it's a collective societal responsibility. I don’t want to spend all my time ‘making my own’ just to reduce packaging. And I don’t want the waste issue to be my sole focus—it’s an important thing but it’s not the only thing. It’s also a justice issue as it’s easier to be eco-friendly with more time and money which is highly discouraging and polarising. I’m keen on advocating for ways to change the rules around packaging and encourage the circular economy in general—it keeps us all, producers and consumers, accountable throughout the whole process. It makes it easy for everyone, regardless of socio-economic status to make positive purchasing choices. Look how straight forward it is to not automatically get a single use plastic bag now! It’s a good use of time and effort to get behind such initiatives and add my voice to good policy changes—the next one is the single use plastic bottle! 

These kinds of things (single use bags and bottles) have snuck into our daily norms through the marketing of convenience and as reflective followers of Jesus it’s good to pause and ask “What am I being sold as normal that actually speaks more to a lazy and entitled mindset of consumption?”

How can we make a more sustainable world that is honouring both people and place and therefore points to the Creator? There’s also the question around what do we actually need—how do we resist the temptation (and it is a temptation!) to buy more and more without critiquing our own greed?  

And what are some of the more tricky things that have plastic in them that you wouldn’t expect? 

Tea bags. Weird aye? The milk alternatives are problematic too. Tetra Paks—bah!

This month for plastic free July, what is something every person, Christian or not, could embrace to help start the plastic free journey? Any tips? 

Be more intentional about your purchasing in general—pick one thing to change and make it part of your normal routine. Do it with other people so you can stay accountable and share the mental load. If it’s too hard or too random, then you won’t keep doing it when life gets messy. Also when you can, buy quality—my metal bucket is still awesome after 4 years—sadly the plastic washing basket is not. 

To finish, what’s the one thing you’d love to say to followers of Jesus about this issue?

Our faith needs to permeate every element of our life—including what we buy—so make it part of your daily prayer. As you make a conscious choice to buy a more ethical option, or even to not buy something at all, invite God into that decision. It’s an embodied spirituality and it gives meaning to many unexamined areas of your life. 

Thanks so much for your time in this busy week Bridget! We so appreciate your thoughts, but also your witness and example in choosing to live this way. 

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Bridget Barnard is a member of Urban Vision and Coordinator of Intermission at Carey Baptist College. Andrew Clark-Howard is the current editor of Metanoia.